Harry potter and the dance of death
Chapter one: out of the darkness, there is light
An orange glow lit up the cobbles, the gas lamps casting an eerie shine of the street and all was quiet in this small town. Residing just north of Nottingham, it was the waypoint of any travel fatigued wizards or witches wanting a rest, or something to eat before the journey from one end of England to the next.
It was late 1876 and the winter, particularly biting this year, had its icy hold on the small market town. The thatched roof plied high with late winter snow one small cottage, situated facing a village green housing a maypole, in the topmost bedroom of the house, there was a glow, candles had been lit and in the large fireplace, tall enough for a man to stand in, was host to a roaring fire, in the crowded room were several people, Dr Stebbins, the local doctor was tending to a woman in the bed as her husband waited outside pacing and wringing his hands, his cloak still spattered with ash from his arrival. Stood with the Doctor was the woman, now screaming in agony's dear friend, Lillian, a woman whom she had known for over a decade now, whom she had met at school. Unable to bear his wife's screams the man outside, called Wulvric, moved downstairs to a cabinet, unlocking this with a wave of his still gloved hand, he took out a bottle and a glass, poured himself a drink and sat at the scrubbed wooden kitchen table, looking out of the window at the maypole, he fondly remembered several summers there, sat on the grass with his wife, Catherine, sipping lemonade and talking about nothing as the clouds skimmed across the sky. Beyond the green, lay an Inn, lights now only glowing in the lights up stairs rooms, where the customers lay their heads for a nights sleep before continuing their journeys, with a chuckle to himself he remembered the scolding he had received from his wife for all the late returns across the green his home and the home he would pass his child, now being born upstairs as he fondly remembered his life up until this point. Just as he rose his glass to his mouth he herd a newborn's cry above him, these made him jump from his seat, and in doing so, spill his alcoholic beverage down his front. He ran up the stairs as fast as his legs would take him and threw himself at the door, not opening it, but bashing his head on the wood and making him feel slightly dizzy. He took a second or two to regain his composure and then pushed down the latch. Slowly with a slight creak, he opened the door to see the doctor clipping his leather bag shut and with a warm smile turning to him and saying
"Congratulations, Mr. Dumbledore, sir, you have a son!"
The only reaction to this he could muster was a smile, a smile that he thought would last him a lifetime.
"Thank you doctor Stebbins! Thank you!" he replied, wringing the mans hands and beaming at him, the doctor grinned at him, and announced
"Mrs. Dumbledore, I trust you would like some time alone now, and I daresay some sleep, I will be here tomorrow to check on you" turning to the only other gentleman in the room he said
"I offer my congratulations again, Mr Dumbledore and now, I will leave you, and your wife, to tend to your new healthy son, goodbye"
Wulvric took a seat at the side of his wife and she smiled sleepily at him.
"Well, do we have a name?" he inquired, lovingly
"I was thinking we could name him after your brother, he would have loved him so."
"Then it is settled" he said with a smile. "The world shall now see a second Albus Dumbledore" at this his wife passed him the baby, and he held him, he sat there and held him until the sun rose and the birds began to sing, he was feeling dizzy now, but not from his bash on the head, but from the love rushing through him, love for his son, love for his wife and love for his deceased brother whom he missed dearly.
His brother, Albus had been his role model through out his teenage life, and his guide on all things, he had never needed to ask him advise, he always knew what he needed advising on, he was sure, had he been alive that he would have been the greatest wizard ever, a label that fell on him now, and he was also sure that, as his wife had said whilst naming him that he would have loved his nephew. A tear welled in his eye thinking how his brother had been cut down, so early in his life, by his once friend and how he had suffered at the end, but he had won, he had given his own life so that people he didn't even know could enjoy and live theirs, he knew why he did it, he knew that he had to but he was angry for it coming to that angry, that he knew it would come to it again for someone else, little did he know his newborn son would have so much to do with the falling of the next dark lord, and how he would help in the fight against the one after that.
At that moment, over 100 years from that point and as that small innocent bundle was Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry another expectant father passed a hallway as his wife lay in her room giving birth. Finally, again as had happened all those years ago he herd the cry of a baby, now, however he went about things differently, he waited, not sure if he was allowed to go in yet (he had never been at the birth of any children before) he stood and breathed deeply he was a father! He, the boy who lived, twice for that matter was now a father to a child! Tentatively he knocked on the door someone softly called:
"Come in"
And he entered, set eyes upon his wife and burst into joyful tears, ten years ago, he hadn't known anyone in this room, they had all taken him in and became his family, and now he loved them all dearly even marrying one of them, just as his mind chewed this over, a middle age woman hugged him so hard he thought he was going to suffocate. This was Molly Weasley the only woman he can remember being a real mother to him. Through the tearful embrace she manage to whisper to him
"Oh, Harry, she's…she's… just so beautiful" at this she broke away and turned to the other woman in the room
"Hermione, I must go and owl Arthur"
"Ok, Mrs. Weasley, you go, we'll be fine here"
She left, closing the door gently behind her. Hermione then said, with a warm smile:
"I'm sure our newest dad would like to hold his beautiful new daughter, wouldn't he Ginny? I'll leave you two to it, I'm sure Ron's waiting to hear the news, mind if I use Hedwig, Harry?"
"What?" he said, startled "no, no that's fine 'mionie, fine…" he responded, trailing off, caught in his new little girls gaze.
"Well, do you want time with her, Harry? Or am I going to be here with her all night?" said Ginny, the amusement obvious in her voice.
I just… I can't…. she's…." he leant over and kissed Ginny's head softly and slowly picked the baby up and held it as his wife slept softly beside him.
They remained like this for hours until the sun rose, at which point Harry felt tired himself and decided it was time to send out the necessary owls after which he would join his wife in bed.
Remus,
It's a girl! Mother and baby are both fine!
Harry
He wrote similar letters to as many people he could think of and retired for a sleep, for it had been a very, very long day. He had awoke the previous morning, and fell asleep this to the sound of birds singing and molly no doubt cooking enough food to feed the whole of the country, not just the guests they'd be expecting over the next few weeks.
As the short days of winter turned into the warmer wetter days of spring, both Harry and Ginny revelled in their new found parent hood. Their child, whom they had named Anissia was truly a beautiful little girl, it was obvious she would inherit her mothers red hair and pale skin, but her eyes were truly her grandmother Lilly's oval in shape and a deep dark green in colour. She was breath taking.
Mrs Weasley had made it her business to make everything as comfortable as possible, with Fred George bill and Charlie away most of the time and Percy still too pompous to apologise and return who could blame her? She was lonely and frankly bored, having no children of her own to look after she did everything humanly possible for her new grandchild. Mr. Wesley's reaction was simple; he made any excuse, no matter how trivial to disappear up stairs, whilst up there everyone knew he was cooing over his "little Annie".
Over the weeks Harry realised he never knew he knew so many people, nearly everyone he had met ether sent him owls or visited, even professors McGonagall and Flitwick and hargid had appeared one Saturday morning Harry was dumbstruck by the normally unemotional professor McGonagall when she had exclaimed
"Oh potter! Isn't she just darling!"
Hagrid's reaction had been all together more comical, when asked if he wanted to hold her, he blushed a deep red and knocked poor professor Flitwick off his chair and muttered something about not being able to stay long then something about Aberdeen but finally succumbed took her into his massive arms and burst into tears sobbing for minutes, just as he had once again composed himself she tiny girl grabbed his finger with both hands (still not reaching all the way around it) he let out a deafening wail and sobbed again, through his sobs he managed to say
"Oh 'Arry! All these years you 'ad it so b-b-bad! An…An now you got a young 'un of you're own an…an…I'm so proud of yeh 'Arry"
Then turning to Ginny he said tears anew in his eyes
"An you Ginny, 'an you" passing the baby back to her.
As the trio were about to leave, Harry called the half-giant back into the living room and said
"Hagrid, will you sit down a minute? There's something me and Ginny want to ask you"
The giant sat on the settee covering it all so that Ginny had to sit on Harry's knee on the one remaining chair, as crookshanks had taken the other.
"Well," she started "I've asked Dumbledore to be one, and I thought I'd ask you to fill the space as Annie's other godfather?"
At this news the giant stood up and nearly knocked himself out on the ceiling after agreeing that, yes he would absolutely love to be Annie's god parent it took them till late evening to get him back to Hogwarts, but Harry was sure he wouldn't be there, he would be at the three broomsticks, drinking his own mass in beer.
As he and Ginny lay in bed that night he slid over and kissed the back of her head and she snuggled into his warm body, then a question popped into his head
"Who are we making godmothers to her?"
Ginny mused over this question for quite a while before saying
"Well, I was thinking of making Hermione one of course" Harry nodded in quiet acceptance, it was Hermione, how could they not?
"And, well I wasn't sure about the other place"
"No, he replied, "Me neither…"
He kissed her head once again, but for longer this time, giving him the time to smell the wildflower smell her hair always had, as it lay on her pillow, so soft it could feel almost liquid to the touch he removed his glasses and fell to sleep, his arms still around her feeling her every breath as it lifted her chest and made it fall again.
After a few days in the garden of the burrow, the bright yellow flowers reflecting the sunlight and the green grass giving off the smell we associate so closely to summer. Watching the butterflies play merrily among the bordering beds whilst holding Annie in his arms, with Ginny sat beside him, sheltering under a large bush, sipping pumpkin juice and discussing who they should make the godmother, several names were thrown around, until one Friday afternoon a name came to Ginny so blindingly obvious that Harry was amazed they hadn't thought of it earlier, as her name was uttered be Harry they agreed almost instantly
"Your mum"
"Of course! Oh Harry, she'll be thrilled!"
"Well, shall we tell her? No time like the present!"
So, Ginny, carrying her daughter and Harry walked into the kitchen to find Mrs Weasley bustling around worktops setting knives cutting and bowls mixing whilst the radio was quietly claiming that
"Mrs Baxter's chicken seasoning will see your family go clucking mad for more! Whatever the dish!"
Ginny set Annie down in one of the many cots Mrs. Weasley had placed around the house and she sat herself down at the table conjured three steaming mugs of tea and said
"Mum, sit down; we need to ask you something"
"Yes, Ginny love just a minute"
"No, seriously mum, we need to do it now!"
"Ok, ok" she said, dropping the cloth she was holding and going to sit with them.
"Be Annie's godmother" upon this request Mrs Weasley collapsed onto the kitchen floor.